By Greg Smith The Day
NEW LONDON, Conn. — On July 6, 2021, Police Chief Brian Wright emailed a memo to his officers, a reminder that the public has a First Amendment right to record in public settings.
Attached to Wright’s email was a link to a story about four officers in Danbury who were disciplined for unprofessional conduct ― some were suspended and one later retired ― after an encounter in 2021 with self-described “First Amendment auditor” SeanPaul Reyes, known on YouTube as Long Island Audit, who was filming inside the Danbury Public Library and contested his removal by police.
“Please do not let yourself be baited or engage in a manner that does not display our professionalism,” Wright had warned in the email.
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The First Amendment activists are often individuals with YouTube channels posting videos of what they consider to be tests for police and public employees. There are numerous examples online of these individuals walking into city halls, libraries and police stations, flexing their freedom of the press rights. They are sometimes told to stop recording, threatened with arrest and told to produce identification.
The bigger the confrontation, the more chance they get noticed online, where some of the content can earn them money.
New London police were tested on Aug. 20, 2022, when Daniel Kokoszka and his partner strode into the police department parking lot using a cell phone to record the vehicles there. Kokoszka’s interaction with police led to an eight-day suspension and mandated retraining for Lt. Joshua Bergeson, who can be seen in body camera footage blocking and pushing Kokoszka in an attempt to force him to leave.
This week, the city released the body camera footage from Bergeson and other officers, as well as the internal investigation into the incident in response to a Freedom of Information request from The Day.
Kokoszka tells Bergeson he is in a public parking lot with no signs barring members of the public and it’s his First Amendment right to record video. Under threat of being charged with disorderly conduct or trespassing, he tells Bergeson “No. That’s not how it works.”
“Do you really want to do this?” Bergeson asks.
“I don’t care, because I haven’t done anything wrong. You’re making yourself look like a clown,” Kokoszka responds.
The argument broke down and expletives were exchanged. Kokoszka immediately filed a complaint against Bergeson and four other officers. Bergeson’s attempt to charge the two men with first-degree trespass was rejected by his supervisors.
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